Archive for the ‘Cast Q&A’ Category

Nerd HQ hosted a Q&A with Evangeline Lilly, where she talks about Lost, her new book – The Squickerwonkers, what’s on her bucket list, her humanitarian work and of course her character, Tauriel from The Hobbit.

You might want to fast forward to the 2:43 minute point when the Q&A actually begins.

Evangeline also talks about the new interactive version of Squickerwonkers that’s coming out, and about working with a Kiwi composer on it and having Sylvester McCoy narrate the story. “It contains animated elements, little easter eggs and things kids can touch and they come to life.”

She discusses her approach to Tauriel saying that she was super proud that she wasn’t just there as a kick-ass woman who can slay and kill. “Look what I can do is, I can protect, I can have compassion and I can care and be gentle and not be like “Urgh!”, but be feminine and graceful while slaughtering orcs.”

Earlier today, Peter Jackson, Richard Armitage and Evangeline Lilly participated in a Google+ Hangout – answering questions from fans and debuting a new clip from The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (which
you can view here). The Hobbit Movies has written up a rough transcript
of the hangout (they describe the quotes more as “summaries”, than exact quotes). (more…)

LOS ANGELES – TheOneRing.net will sit down (and stand up) with stars of “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,” tomorrow and since we are representing fans, it seemed only appropriate to let fans submit some questions.

Interviews will play later in the week via video but we need your questions right away, in the next 12 hours.

So, in the comment section at the end of this story, its your chance to submit a question. We will take the best one for each of the actors we interview and ask!

Please specify below which of these actors your question is for, in no particular order:

It was an interesting journey the filmmaker and Hobbit actor Jed Brophy took us on in one hour, we where guided along the stages and rooms of Park Road Post in Miramar, Wellington, to where we finally ended up in Peter Jackson’s’ home away from home the editing room in his traditional bare feet.

Jed was a great host along side Peter Jackson who explained certain things on the way to the editing room, we saw snippets of work in progress, Azog and an Orc in motion capture, some Pre-Viz of Smaug the Dragon, of whom we only saw snippets of in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which is akin to the unfinished Gollum in his first but brief appearance in Fellowship of The Ring, before he was fully realized as a digital character in the Two Towers, he was a mere shadow of himself you could say..

To celebrate the release of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in Australia on May 1st, Popcorn Taxi had a special showing of the film with a Q&A session with Richard Armitage. RingerSpy and long time message board member, Deleece Cook aka Elven, was lucky enough to attend and sent us the following report on the night.

Yesterday afternoon Richard Armitage was interviewed by 2DayFM on the Dan and Maz show. They discuss how big a Hobbit fan Dan is, The Hobbit movie and then play a game of “Ikea Furniture or Lord of the Rings Character”. The podcast is in two parts and can be listened to here or you can download the podcast here.

TORn staffer Saystine found us another great interview video from Yahoo! Movies UK in which Hobbit cast members Richard Armitage, James Nesbitt, and Andy Serkis discuss how the second film in the trilogy, The Desolation of Smaug, will differ from An Unexpected Journey.

“It will get more dangerous and dark as Bilbo gets further away from home and in more jeopardy,” says Andy Serkis, who, in addition to playing Gollum in the films, is Second Unit Director on the trilogy.

Will we enjoy the departure from the more lighthearted nature of Unexpected Journey? Well Richard Armitage will, at least. He says, “Obviously I favor the dark.”

Observant Net watchers from the Tolkien Forever group in Los Angeles spotted these two new videos this week in which cast members, including Richard Armitage, James Nesbitt, and Andy Serkis, weigh in on the dragon we’re all waiting for and on the decision to make three ‘Hobbit’ films.

In the first video from IGN, cast members discuss what they know (or don’t) about the mysterious Smaug, and what we can expect to see of the dragon in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. Richard Armitage (Thorin) says, “I haven’t seen the dragon, and I begged them to show me the dragon!” And James Nesbitt (Bofur) tantalizes us, saying, “I think it will blow people away… I think it will be an important and exciting cinematic moment.”

In the second video from Yahoo! Movies, cast members address the questions why The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is quite long, and why there was a need for three full films to tell the full Hobbit story. Andy Serkis (Gollum) sums it up by saying, “Pete likes to make long films.” But Richard Armitage assures us that, “come the Battle of the Five Armies, you’re going to be glad you took the time in Bag End.”

Motion capture stage visited, with Azog and another Orc, more fighting with the orcs, including orc archery

Dam Busters, someone should remake it so Jed can be in it.

James Bond walk of fame is rather cool

Pre-vis department, Pre-visualisation (animated sequences)

I see Smaug poster

Rather comic version of Smaug on a computer screen (psych)

the T-Rex with wings look a bit like Pete’s Dragon

Rivendell library is rather cool looking, even if never used

Jed loves Goldfinger

And then we enter the Editing room with Jabez Olssen

One Million years B.C was the poster over PJ’s bed as a kid

Now to see editing happening

Bard is taking the Dwarves and their barrels across the river, in a boat.

Bilbo – I should never come along, we have a saying in the Shire “never venture east”.

He seems rather miserable

“I should never have left Bagend. We have a saying in the Shire, we learn it from birth, Never Venture East.”

Peter and Jed agree that Aidan is one of the Hot Dwarves (Lisa)

Jed looks very waterlogged

We get the final cut – and it’s Bard saying “So Master Hobbit, why did you venture East?”

Yeah Luke, sends a little message to say hello to the fans. The One Ringer, that’s us!

Jed teases that Bard is out of the film but Peter says that Bard is one of the cool things about the next film

Here come the video questions.

Chris asks about problems with a middle film?

PJ answers – middle films are complicated, but with multiple story lines different character arcs and plot lines take over.

Thranduil on his throne, awesome.

elf troop, with Legolas and Tauriel, fighting orcs

Laketown and the Master looking smarmy, and his manservant looks a bit like Grima.

Stephen Fry says he’s taking over from Orlando as the most desirable man in the films

Stephen sends a video, and mentions that England is decimating NZ in Cricket

Chinese girls ask questions about Legolas and Orlando and why he was cast and whether or not he’s similar to his Elf

Orlando sends a video to ask PJ a question – he wants to know what image he is most excited to see onscreen.

PJ says fans are most excited to see Smaug and Bilbo together and so is he.

Stephen’s video has been running in the background because he’s so wordy, but he says he has no idea if he’s in the last film

Marina in Canada – asks about new characters

PJ answers – Thranduil, Bard (part of the family now), They’ve made Bard like Robin Hood, is he good or bad. And of course, Tauriel is new, a new creation. Yay for her costume, finally getting to really see it.

Tauriel wears a leather

Brazilian kids asking questions, call it LOTR and pronounce it as a word

The kids ask about PJ’s favorite weapons, theirs is Gimli’s and Gloin’s axe.

PJ loves Theoden’s sword, with the horse motifs.

And back to London and Stephen Fry’s video still running 😉

PJ was punishing Stephen about his comments about the NZ Cricket team

Twitter question about how difficult it is to stay on track or schedule

They mention the Flood in Nelson as one thing that messed up shooting

Surprise question with from Stephen Colbert – asks about the Sindar Elves and the Avari elves? PJ says yes about the Elves

So PJ rags on Stephen Colbert about two different sizes of mugs on his show, and how the quality of the printing on the mugs is poor quality

Twitter question – does he edit barefoot? Yes, he can be barefoot.

Lee Pace, woohoo, looking rather fab, as usual. Lee is looking forward to seeing the animosity of Dwarves and Elves in his own halls.

Twitter question – would Jed like to inflict any dwarf torture on PJ?

Jed says maybe, but has to say no because he wants to continue to work with him.

Great story about the Dwarves on the spit, and how Mark Hadlow got sick and asked to take a break and no one heard him. Poor thing

Billy Boyd sends a video question – In FOTR, they went as far as the Misty Mountains, but he knows in The Hobbit they go further East. Billy wants to know about any new Wildlands.

PJ answers about Mirkwood, and shows artwork the darkness and foreboding nature of Mirkwood. Misty and mirky and hard to walk through, to be sure.

Evangeline sends a question – What will Thranduil’s realm be like?

PJ mentions that Green Screens is why she does not know what the realm looks like. The artwork shows a bridge over a raging river to a structure like Rivendell, but inside the forest. The realm looks like Rivendell and Lorien mixed together, but underground.

Dom Monaghan asks a question, he is holding the camera himself.

What is the best PJ rumor you’ve heard that is not true?

What are you happiest about in transferring book to film?

PJ answers about the craziest rumor – people asked him if he was going to move his family to a ship off the coast to avoid paying Taxes. He gets too seasick to do that.

Twitter question – will the Necromancer play a bigger part, and PJ says yes and nothing else.

Here comes a look at the movie, but the Trailer is not ready yet.

PJ says that Gandalf goes to see the tombs of the Witch-king

Gandalf in a cavern, showing a dark doorway that appears to be blown open from within. He then goes inside, and sees a bird flies out of broken stonework, and then sees Radagast. The Nine tombs were broken open from the inside.

The vlogs will be starting up again, even though this is very much like one.

Sequence of action from throughout the film concluding with ‘We are the Dwarves of Erebor, we have come to reclaim our homeland’

Ran for about 55 minutes

Remember, if you missed the Peter Jackson hosted first look at “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,” or just want to watch it over again, a modified version will be archived on the Trilogy’s official website www.thehobbit.com/sneak. To access the footage, use your UltraViolet code on your copy “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” Blu-ray Combo Pack, Blu-ray 3D Combo Pack or 2-Disc Special Edition DVD.

Also, be sure to stay tuned to TheOneRing.net for a detailed analysis. Coming soon!

We all listened to and read Peter Jackson’s words from Comic-Con about three possible “Hobbit,” movies carefully. But we didn’t listen to all the words and we missed a few things.

He told us. He told us — he did.

He said exactly what he meant, he said it plainly and the media and fans (and me) tried to figure out what he meant when he told us in plainness. Monday, Jackson dropped an atomic bomb of news and fandom reacted accordingly.

AMBITION
More on the words we ignored in a minute. We need to figure out when these films break, what it means for fans and websites and studios and cinema and the director, but lets not rush past the size and scope of this news. Lets not walk around Paris admiring all the cafes and churches without also pausing and noticing the big tower in the center of town.

We witnessed, the last few weeks since Comic-Con, something monumental, unprecedented, unparalleled and a little bit crazy. Jackson (and when we say “Jackson” we always mean the director and Walsh, Boyens and a team of others supporting their vision) is in unchartered territory here. (more…)

Conan Stevens is an Australian actor and stuntman. After recent work on “A Game of Thrones,” the magic of the internet created a connection between TheOneRing.net and Stevens (cast as Bolg in the two-part adaptation of “The Hobbit,”) leading to the following interview. Currently TORn is embedded in the production, but that event and this interview are not related.

TheOneRing.net: Update us on everything you have going on at the moment.

Conan Stevens: Compared to the the 24 months prior, last year was a good year for me. To start with I managed to get onto “The Hobbit,” which is a story in itself. I missed the main round of auditions but managed to get a foot in the door at the last second – just as I came down with dysentery. So that was a combination of luck, tenacity and 25 years of preparation/wasting time with RPG’s the SCA, Martial Arts, Pro Wrestling, etc.

The afternoon that Peter announced on his Facebook page that I was to be in “The Hobbit” I called a casting agency that handled the”Spartacus” TV series auditions in Wellington, and it turns out the timing was again in my favour (more…)

Luke Evans is in the midst of filming the longest block he is involved in with The Hobbit shoot, and he just celebrated his birthday this past weekend. And yet, he still found time to phone in an interview with Collider.com in anticipation of the release of The Raven next week. The snippet linked here is actually just for the Hobbit bits, including some insight into filming in 48FPS. The full article will be posted in a few days time, so enjoy the preview.

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